One of the final elite flat meetings of the 2025 season takes place this week, as Doncaster stages the St Leger Festival.
As the festival’s namesake-race and showpiece event, the St Leger highlights the four-day meeting, in which 31 races are scheduled.
It is the final British Classic race of the season, supported on the card by Group races such as the (Group Two) Doncaster Cup.
Ran over two miles and a furlong, this race serves as the final leg of the British Stayers’ Triple Crown – preceded by the Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup.
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Sweet William
It is also the only British race that allows the winner to enter the Melbourne Cup, without enduring a ballot.
This year, joint-father/son trainers John and Thady Gosden will look to retain their crown – after Sweet William took home the top share of £150,000 in awarded prize money, last year.
The same horse will line up as the 11/8 favourite in this year’s renewal, after enduring a season of near misses.
His seasonal reappearance birthed a third-placed effort in the Yorkshire Cup, at York, though that was over a mile and six furlongs – a trip which he hasn’t ran over since August 2023.
In his three subsequent races this season, Sweet William went on to finish fourth, third and second; first in the Ascot Gold Cup, then in the Goodwood Cup and the Lonsdale Cup.
The winner of the former and latter mentioned races was star-stablemate Trawlerman, whilst trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Scandinavia was the victor at Goodwood – adding substance to the form.
He is the sole representative of a yard looking to win this race for the fifth time.
Sunway
According to the market, the chief threat to back-to-back Sweet William victories comes in the shape of Sunway, for trainer David Menuisier.
This four-year-old colt is yet to score since winning a French Group One as a two-year-old, on only his fourth racecourse visit.
In his starts this season, he was beaten into fifth on seasonal reappearance at Newbury, before finishing fourth in both Hardwicke Stakes – at Royal Ascot – and the Goodwood Cup.
He will arrive here off the back of a below-par run in France, though perhaps the trip was too short, and he will tackle this race rather than the St Leger (third last season).
Sunway trades at 10/3 to win the Doncaster Cup, with trainer Andrew Balding’s renowned Group performer Coltrane in at 11/2.
Coltrane
Balding’s eight-year-old gelding is another previous winner of the race, after he won it back in 2022.
He has become a household name in Group races across the UK, though he has never won a Group One contest.
His last victory came in a Group Three race at Ascot (Sweet William third), on last year’s British reappearance, but the form of that race was denied by the Gosden horse, in this race.
Two defeats to Trawlerman (second in the first race) are the filling in a four-race season, where he opened with a second placed effort at Newbury, before winning his latest race – in Listed company.
Pendragon
Of the others in the market, trainer Sir Mark Prescott’s Pendragon is worthy of a mention – priced at 9/1.
He has left behind a winless two-year-old campaign by winning three of his four starts this season, all in handicap company.
This race will represent a step up in trip and grade for the three-year-old, should Presscott send him to Doncaster.
This three-year-old colt is very unexposed and will venture into Group company for the first time.
He is one of two in this race that hold an entry into a lesser contest at Salisbury – the Weatherbys Stallion Book Persian Punch Conditions Stakes – due to run on the same day.
Kyle of Lochalsh
Trainer Hughie Morrison’s Kyle Of Lochalsh is the other, and he too has never run in Group company before.
However, his CV details some credible runs in both Listed races and competitive Handicaps, as well as a win on his latest outing in a Class Two Handicap at Goodwood.
Morrison’s five-year-old is priced at 6/1 to give his trainer his Doncaster Cup victory.
READ MORE: St Leger Festival 2025: St Leger analysis and preview
